I am pretty sure many of you have (at least once) completely missed the stop, after falling asleep on the bus, the subway or the train. Well, I know it sounds crazy, but that’s the kind of experience a walrus has recently been through. Only it didn’t took the bus, but an iceberg all the way from the Arctic to Ireland
An honest mistake from the large mammal and probably no one would have noticed it, if it would not landed off the Ireland shores – a place where walrus sights are very rare. The unlucky walrus was spotted by a local. Earlier this month, Alan Houlihan was with his daughter at Glanleam Beach when witnessed the unusual sight.
“I thought it was a seal at first,” Houlihan told The Independent. “He kind of jumped up on the rocks. He was massive. He was about the size of a bull. He was right beside us, less than 50 meters away from us. He went off again for a while and he came back and went back to the rocks.”
Houlihan contacted the wildlife officials who alerted the folks to stay away from the spot where the walrus has been spotted as it is in need of rest after such a long journey. Even it sounds nearly impossible, it actually happens frequently for these marine mammals to take naps on iceberg and then to be carried far away on the ocean. An idea embraced by marine experts, too.
Watch as the tired walrus is resting on the rocks, here:
“I’d say what happened is he fell asleep on an iceberg and drifted off and then he was gone too far, out into the mid-Atlantic or somewhere like that down off Greenland possibly,” Kevin Flannery, director of Oceanworld Aquarium in Dingle, Co. Kerry, told the Irish Independent. “That is usually what happens… they fall asleep on an iceberg and get carried off from the Arctic. If he regains his strength hopefully he’ll make his way back up.”
Source travelandleisure